I look at the roadside and see good grazing, at a fallen tree and see a jump. My phone autodials the farrier and my Mini hauls feed, so naturally my blog is about horses.

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Pinked Out

On Saturday, at the ACTHA Pink Ribbon Challenge in Fall City, I was running on my most powerful fuel – curiousity. What would a trail challenge be like? Maybe this is something I could bring Willy to and have some fun. Cathy thought she might be willing to give it a try, but she was out of town for the weekend.

So with no trailer ride, Willy had to stay home unchallenged, but I figured I could check it out and take a few (right!) pictures before skipping off to other obligations.

On arriving I saw Merle and her daughter Mindy, who outfitted me with a bracelet from her goodie bag, as I had a pink deficiency. Mindy had come all the way from Arizona to ride Holly.

The former rescue was now four and had not been to an event since the SAFE show in 2008, though we had seen updates on her progress. She seemed unphased by all the other horses.

Although Holly should have been looking to Merle’s experienced trail mare Tabby for guidance, she seemed more intent on upstaging her for attention. She deserved that princess tiara that Mindy made for her!

Mindy wasn’t the only long-distance traveler — there were riders from California and Oregon also – on the ACHTHA tour, racking up points (there are some high-point cash prizes) or just seeing the country. Western Washington wasn’t looking so bad today!

Most of the riders were more local. From Snohomish came Emily and her horse Rae, named after her trainer’s grandmother. She brought her husband along with his appaloosa to be a “buddy horse” for Rae.

There were also a number of husband-and-wife teams, or extended families, like Dale Rumens-Partee, her husband Russ and their niece Michaela, of Western Sky Horsemanship.

The pleasure division was crowded and there were some other green horses besides Holly out there. Although she didn’t have far to travel from her home in Fall City, Michelle admitted to being quite nervous. Her horse, “Justie,” had never done a competition before. She was there with her friend Laura whose palomino was a “been there, done that” horse. The buddy system works for people too.

Holly wasn’t the only horse there to have come out of a bad situation, either. Amber was plucked out of a meat buyer’s pen in Texas, looking, I was told, nothing like she did now, a well-muscled mare enjoying the fine grass and sunshine.

That’s one of the goals of the organization — to give horses who might not be able to show in other venues a chance to get out and compete. There are no points for grooming or turnout, but every horse there was sleek and shiny. Many undoubtedly had a pedigree, but papers were left at home and on the trail it was the relationship, training and temperament that were going to tell.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to acknowledge our more frivolous side – there was a “pinked-out” competition, though most were conceding that Boogie and his rider were the likely winners! She told me her previous horse was a mare who left a legacy of pink accessories… but it looked to me like they was in it to win it.

The theme extended to the obstacles as well, created by ACTHA affiliate (and Extreme Mustang Trainer) Jamie Thomas and her team. Few of us have not had friends or family who have had a life-threatening brush with breast cancer, or even lost them to the disease, but laughter is a proven healing tool, so plenty of liberties were taken. When you are heading down the bra trail, after all, you simply can’t take yourself too seriously.

Some of the obstacles were right there on the farm and took advantage of “naturally occurring” elements – a scramble up a pile of construction rubble, for instance.

Sounds straightforward enough, but first you had to pass between two barrels and tape marking the start point.

That caused more problems for some horses than the actual obstacle, though a few balked at the transition between grass and dirt. I didn’t laugh, because I have a horse who is very suspicious of “alternative” footing.

The experienced horses took a good look at it as they approached, picked their footing and had no issues with the giant backhoe on top of the mound either. Because the obstacles are graded on execution rather than “pass-fail,” like an eventing course, if a horse balks, it is not disqualified. The rider may receive extra-credit points for how they decide to address the situation. There is a time limit, and they can also chose to bypass an obstacle if their horse is really having difficulties, although they forfeit the points.

The ground poles did not phase most of the horses – those in the open division had to trot the pink ones, while the pleasure division walked the brown ones.

The poles were largely a setup for the mail box. This also allowed one judge, Ursula, to observe two obstacles.

The mailbox proved a bit tricky for some people. For the open division, they were to sidepass to the mailbox. More than one horse chose to sidepass right back when the rider tried to open it.

No one got into serious difficulties — all left with their piece of candy and the mailbox closed, but this seems to be one you might want to train for.

If your horse has one ear cocked towards it, that’s a good sign that he is paying attention, but if he is vibrating with tension, you might want to work on this one a bit before bending so low out of the saddle.

“The piece of candy inside is just not worth falling off,” someone reminded another rider. I should note that Jamie made a pitch at the meeting for adults wearing helmets too, but they are only required for riders under eighteen.

Of course a farm has lots of un-judged obstacles as well, from a child’s playhouse to a crowing rooster. For the biggest real-life hazard, crossing Highway 203, there were crossing guards with signs to stop traffic, and safety rider Laura Chelton to bring up the rear.

Since I didn’t have a horse to follow them out onto the trails, I missed seeing some of the best challenges – including the “bra weave” – which were out in the woods. After the last riders had crossed the road Jamie herded Dacia Burley and her sister Chancee into a borrowed truck to go and place two of the obstacles.

This would be a good chance to see behind the scenes, I said to myself. Nothing at all to do with being herd-bound. So I piled in with them.

With a volunteer staff, sometimes the organizer finds themselves unexpectedly doing more than planned, including some last-minute ribbon and obstacle placement. This meant driving the forestry roads, accessible only through what Dacia described as “a Jurassic Park gate.”

The key, and a permit, was secured from the Hancock Forestry company at a price – one of the expenses that the rides entry fee covers.

Jamie was more worried at the moment about the fact the key didn’t seem to work. “This could be bad,” she said, as Chancee worked with the locks.

Truthfully, for a T-Rex, it wouldn’t have been much of a barrier, but a five foot structural steel gate was more than enough to keep the truck out, and hoofing it to our destination was not an option. Even with a vehicle, it was a fifteen-minute drive down the road to the location. Then the right lock was found and Jamie exhaled again.

Through the gate, it was time obsess about getting the rest of the ribbons and obstacles in place before the riders got there. “Last time we had a lot of gaited horses,” Jamie remarked.

She didn’t have to say more. I remembered my adventures at Mt. Adams, trying to keep pace with Jewel, a Rocky Mountain mare!

In an ACTHA competition, there is no time limit on the ride, although there is a safety sweep rider to make sure no-one is stuck out there or in some kind of trouble. Of course there is no rule to say you have to go slow, either. I thought to myself that perhaps Jamie was lucky that Cathy and I weren’t riding after all.

“Please, no riders,” reiterated Jaime to the trail gods, as we headed away after re-marking the last turn with pie plates.

On cue, we saw a rider coming up the hill towards us.

Of course it was only the judge for the “Stitches” obstacle, riding in. We dropped off one of the missing obstacles, a simple matter of two barrels, a bucket, and a squishy orange thing (“the tumor,” Dacia said – the themed obstacles featured a darker sense of humor than all that pink might suggest).

Chancee looked a bit lonely standing there with her barrels, but time was still pressing and we went back to mark the last leg of trail. She might not have been smiling if she realized we were carting off her bug spray.

After hiking in from the road, we dragged deadfall from the woods to create a logpile.

“Is it okay jump it?” I asked Jamie hopefully.

Apparently that is frowned on in trail courses. This is not a crossover sport and you have to respect the trail horse ideal – a horse that is thoughtful rather than adrenaline-driven.

Well, the pile wasn’t high enough to inspire most horses to leap, in any case. As we hauled, Jamie connected with the judge via cellphone. Lacking the benefit of our trail markings, she had turned the wrong way.

No worries, we met her escorting the two front riders as we returned to the truck. They stopped to chat a moment while the judge went on ahead to get into place. It was Laura and Michelle. Judging from the smiles, things had been going well.

Knowing that the others wouldn’t be far behind, we went back to the tumor obstacle to watch. Barrels and buckets – I had done this one with Willy just the day before in the arena! Shouldn’t be a big deal.

By and large it wasn’t, except for one cheeky horse who knocked the bucket over. Perhaps he was planning to eat the contents.

His rider good-humoredly got off and replaced the bucket, even though that meant getting back on a 16.3 hand horse from the ground. The ACTHA rules do require you to stay on your horse to negotiate obstacles, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. He got to show off how nicely his horse ground tied, anyway. “That could have been Willy,” I said, I made a note to work on the “stay” command on the trail, not just at home.

Merle and Tabby were champs at this, of course.

Holly looked curious about the bucket before stepping up to it.

The “tumor” startled more than one rider though, with its squishy consistency.

At least it didn’t bounce when they had to drop it on the second barrel!

No-one seemed too overwrought about the competitive aspect of the event. There was lots of joking and a little coaching, and the riders were relaxed and chatting as they approached the obstacles in groups. Mostly it looked like a fun way to get out there and test yourself a little, get young horses some exposure, or just get together for a good laugh.

For the sake of the judges, who must consider several elements at once, the riders and horses proceed through each obstacle individually, but with someone waiting for them on the far side, that didn’t seem to stress any of the horses or rider too much, and there was not that long of a wait for anyone.

This is not an event for people or horses without basic trail skills, though. In order to participate would want to prepare for this by training for obstacle riding at home and whenever you get the chance, on the trail. You can review all the obstacle types at the ACTHA website. The trail course was open for the volunteers and for riders who wanted to work on parts of it again in the afternoon.

I had to miss the finish and the awards ceremony because of other obligations, but I left with a sense both of how the events run from a rider’s perspective — and how much effort really goes into putting something like this together. The organizers and volunteers appreciate getting constructive feedback, as well as thanks for all their hard work, of course. Sleep can wait a day or two.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate..